Pages

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Dana Dazzles in a Blue Our Generation Dress

The "Heart of Summer" Our Generation Outfit

Deluxe outfits from Our Generation are usually fancier materials, or have some larger accessories. "Heart of Summer" does not have amazing accessories, but the dress is very nice.

The set comes with with a beautiful two layered dress, some slip on shoes, a nice summer hat, an ice cream cone, and the obligatory pair of sunglasses that seem to come with most of the Our Generation outfits released this year. The dress is the main piece of this set. Is it nice enough to make the set worth it's price of $16.99?

Since the main piece of this set is the dress, let's start with a look at that first. Made of a beautiful cornflower blue material, the dress has circular holes throughout the dress. Each hole is decorated with a wispy flower, or a dead dandelion design. So that your doll doesn't show off too much skin there is a 2nd lighter colored blue layer underneath the holed layer.

The sleeveless top has a polo style collar, with three non functioning buttons up the front and Velcro up the back. Little pieces of black cloth at the end of the sleeves, used for the stitching, stick out. You should be able to trim them so they don't stick out. The bottom edge of the skirt has a scalloped design along it.

Gathered at the waist, the loose skirt flows off Dana's waist beautifully. A very simple yellow "leather" belt accents the corn blue dress. The belt is extremely large, but can be adjusted, it just has a very long tail. Pieces of thread stick out from it all along it's length. Trim them, and they will come back again.

Though it is not a super fancy dress it is a beautiful dress that is worthy of the "deluxe" name.

The sunglasses are simple, two toned blue, plastic. They fit well on Dana's face. Mine have flecks of paint/plastic on the lenses that were difficult to get off. I finally had to use a razor blade to scrape them off.

It seems like the ice cream cone was an afterthought. I guess it goes with the outfit because it is a summer outfit. It is a little small for the size of the Journey Girls.

The cone fits in Dana's hand perfectly though, even if it is small. It's nice to have, it just seems like Our Generation said, "We need another accessories...what should we throw in?"

The real accessory is the woven straw hat. It has a yellow piece of fabric around the brim of the hat. Throughout the hat there are flecks of pastel colors; peach, teal, blue, purple, and some dark browns.

The hat is a perfect fit for Dana. It can sit high on her head or back on her head. Straw hats always make me nervous because they are somewhat frail. If they get squished they can crack. So be careful with the hat.

Our Generation has many different styles of shoes available. The shoe is not a new style, but is still a nice design. All one color, these light pink shoes are all plastic. The shoes have a small heel, a closed toe, with an open heel. A cute plastic bow adorns the back of the strap that goes around the heel. These shoes are huge on Dana, and stay on some of the times. Placing a piece of double sided tape on the bottom of Dana's feet help hold the shoes on.

RatingsAll ratings are out of 10Value 7 - Even though the dress is made well and the hat is nice, the shoes are very simple (but cute), the glasses are okay, and the ice-cream cone is an after thought. It is similar to other deluxe outfits, but compared to outfits like the kite outfit, it just doesn't seem quite as nice. That and the fact that the belt has fraying issues and the black fabric sticks out of the dresses sleeves makes the outfit not quite perfect.

Fitment 7 - The dress is big on Dana's waist, which is to be expected, as is the extra length on the belt. I was surprised at how large the shoes were. They fell off overtime I picked Dana up to move her. Not bad, but not perfect.Versatility 6 - Not a lot you can do with the dress other than use it as a dress. I am glad to see that OG has given us a hat instead of the obligatory sweater that was last years mainstay. The sandals can be used with other outfits and would make a very cute addition to some outfits, but the problem with fitment may prevent you from using them often. The hat is great and can be used with many summer outfits, as can the sunglasses. And everyone can use some ice cream!

Cuteness 8 - The dress is adorable. This was the first outfit I saw of the new releases and a little, "aaah!" escaped my lips. The color is amazing and rich and really brings out the blue eyed dolls eyes. The hat is an added bonus and is cuter than most straw hats included in OG sets.Overall 7 - I think there are a few issues with this set, especially for your Journey Girl wearing it. That being said, it is still a beautiful, well made dress, with a cute design. Wish the shoes fit better (but they fit on OG/AG dolls perfectly), wish the belt was a different, less fray prone material, and get rid of the glasses and give us an awesome accessory rather than the tiny ice cream cone. That sounds like a lot of complaints, but really it is just if I could make the set perfect. Let's be honest for this price in a Journey Girl outfit we would not get the glasses or the ice-cream cone and we would have another pair of flats to add to our collection. So, when a sale comes up, pick this outfit up (make sure to soak it as it is a dark color and they have a tendency to stain our beautiful Journey Girls!)

AG NoteThis outfit is a good fit for both types of doll, fitting Julie just a little better than Dana. Around the waist and bust the dress really fits Julie well, where on Dana it was just a little loose.

It actually might be a little tight, but since each AG doll can be a little different on the amount they are stuffed, it will more than likely fit most of them correctly. On my Julie it was tight and the Velcro in the back barely closed, but never popped open.

The issue with the black fabric around the sleeve was much more prominent with Julie than with Dana, mostly because AG dolls have slightly larger arms.

There was no way to tuck the fabric back into the sleeve. The shoes fit perfectly on Julie with no issues of slipping off.

The hat fits well as did the glasses. Sometimes glasses fit the Journey Girls but then are too tight on American Girls, but not these, they fit perfect.

Even the ice-cream cone fits perfectly in Julie's hand...even if it is tiny. This is a real a great outfit for both American Girls and for Journey Girls.

5 comments:

You could try a little Mod Podge or Fray Check type product along the edges of the belt to stop the little strings. Trim, then apply the product, and hopefully it won't fray any more. Thanks for the great reviews. I always look forward to your posts.

The eyelet dress and belt. It's too bad about the fraying. yellow is such a different color than we are used too. I'm surprised they didn't put in blue or yellow shoes. Oh, well, their trend of strange color combinations continues.

Hehe! There are definitely some color combos that make me question OG. But it is the trend to have different color shoes than the outfit. Another person said that you can use Modge Podge to help the fraying. Still think it shouldn't fray in the first place...but it is a good solution.